I Am Watchful I Am Necessary
by TheConstellation
Summary: Decades have past since the Ethereals threat was defeated and humanity has emerged united and stronger than ever for the conflict it faced. Now after discovering the Prothean Archives on Mars, humanity is about to end up on a much larger stage than it ever expected to play on when yet another alien threat comes knocking. And again, X-COM stands ready to fight. Vigilo Confido.
1. Chapter 01

**Been Reading X-COM: Second Contact and had this on my mind ever since. Agayek's story is amazing, but there are just some things that I think I would rather have be different. As such, I've decided to try writing this little plot bunny that's been running around in my head since I first read it.**

**Also, not sure I'll finish this, but I'm at least going to be writing this for as long as I am interested in it. Plot suggestions will certainly be appreciated.**

**Also I haven't abandoned my other stories, and I do have chapters mostly done for Halo: Mass Contact and Sword of the Zero, I just need to get this out now.**

**OoOoOoOoO**

**March 14, 2016:** She did it. They did it. We did it. That goddamned Temple Ship the Ethereals brought in off the coast of Brazil is finally gone. It cost all of Mystic Team their lives, but they knew what the chances were going in, damn them.

Somehow I think they all knew they were going to die.

**March 15, 2016:** Chunks of the damn ship are still coming down all over half the planet, but everyone is still celebrating. The Council told me they're thrilled with the success of the team, even if they're saddened by the loss of the soldiers involved. I call bullshit.

Regardless, there's talk of the fourteenth being a world holiday, leading name so far is 'VE' Day or 'Victory Earth'. Even if that phrase already has another meaning already, if a very similar one, I can't say I'm personally against it.

**June 23, 2016:** Final death toll for the Ethereals' invasion and abductions along with the damage from the ship is in, the number is just over four hundred and fifty million people.

Christ...nearly half a billion dead just for what? So those arrogant fucks could make us psionics? I'm not sure it was worth it yet, but history may prove me wrong.

**July 7, 2016:** With many, if not most, of the dead buried, we've started rebuilding. It's the best way I can think of to snub out noses at those damn aliens. For the death and destruction they wrought, we'll get back up, and we'll be stronger for it.

**October 23, 2021:** We've done it now. Using the wormhole tech we acquired from the Ethereals, we managed to put a portal all the way to the moon and have now established X-COM: Luna near the Sea of Tranquility. We've started far, far away from the apollo landing sites to avoid ever damaging them.

With 'FORTRESS EARTH' as the Council now calls it established, humanity is pushing outward. There's debate about doing it one planet and moon at a time or faster, at least in our system as we begin to build a deep space navy.

Even with five years to retrofit everything, I'm still of the opinion that we need to take it slow. Until we have enough to both defend and attack, I don't like this. We already know we're not alone, there's no point in making ourselves vulnerable.

Fortunately the Council agrees.

**December 31, 2021: **To help move things along, the COuncil has finally taken the last needed steps to bring us true global unity. While countries will still be represented within the Council, humanity itself is now a united people.

**January 4, 2023:** Luna is prepared. It's a miniature version of Earth now. Air-to-Space fusion lances dot the surface, a sixth complete X-COM facility, forty-eight Mark IV Firestorm fighters, and a civilian population of two hundred and thirty million and growing fast.

The navy is growing fast, our destroyers, frigates, cruisers, and carriers are filling the combined orbits of Earth and the moon.

And now we go to Mars. Time to see if we men really did come from there.

**April 22, 2023:** Colonization and construction on Mars is going well but there's good news and bad news. Bad news is we found ruins, old, olds ruins of a different alien group on Mars that shows signs that they were observing and studying us but we don't know why. We've already got the best people we can picking them apart for knowledge. We expected there to be more alien groups, we just didn't expect to find evidence to soon.

Good news is real good though. Elerium power plants have finally cracked the nut scientists were working on to make a functioning warp drive. The ship fitted with it looks like a foot ball wearing a hola hoop, but when they turned on the drive it made a near instantaneous jump to just past Neptune before coming back. So we have a viable long distance travel method for ships besides the wormholes and if we encounter any of the aliens from Mars we'll have some potent kinetic weapons we can use if they have something like the Temple Ship.

**December 12, 2026:** Mars and its moons are ours. We've built hyper wave and weapon stations out beyond the asteroid belt and at Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus.

Even with its slow orbit, Pluto is going to get a heavy presence. It's the first stop into out system and humanity isn't going to give a warm welcome to anyone bearing a weapon.

**February 18, 2027:** Those ruins on Mars had a lot in them. Especially the new element we've discovered dubbed 'element zero' to account for its properties. Already it's being incorporated into weaponry and the fleet, but more importantly, the ruins pointed us to Pluto's moon before we got too well set up there. Apparently these guys put something in the moon.

Christ if we're dealing with a group that can build things the size of a moon we're going to need the warp powered kill vehicles.

**May 1, 2027:** The ruins on Mars have been reclassified as archives and we've got a name fore the owners too.

Protheans.

With a name for this group, we're on the path to understanding our enemy and thus defeating them. The staff analyzing the archives contents has been doubled from five thousand to ten thousand and we're finally getting the results of our scans of Charon.

The inside is an immense tuning fork shaped object and there's an unimaginably large core of element zero at the center. Our scientists are torn between tears it apart for resources and studying it.

I've directed them to do the latter before we even consider the former.

**November 11, 2027:** We've exposed the tuning fork inside Charon and the archives have told us what it is.

Apparently it's a method of FTL that uses element zero to jump ships across vast distances of space, and while we've already got two methods of travel, this third one isn't going to be ignored. However we won't be turning this thing on until we know what's at the other end and how we can turn it off again too.

**November 13, 2027:** There's another one of the relays at the other end along with a garden world. The system has been dubbed 'Arcturus' and colonization plans are already under consideration should we decide it's safe.

The even better news is that our scientists are making good progess on reverse engineering the relay since we turned it on yesterday before turning it off now that they've gotten a hyperwave scan of it in the active state.

Dr. Vahlen says it'll be possible to create weapon turrets for our ships using something akin to a smaller version of the Relay to fire our plasma weapons. Dr. Shen says once the research is done, his boys will have prototypes within a month.

For all the new faces that have come through X-COM in the last decade, it's good to still have them here, even if I can't micromanage like I used to.

**August 26, 2028:** Arcturus's colonization is proceeding smoothly, one planet at a time just like Sol's but much faster with how many people want to find their fortune in the new system.

Of a bit more important news to me though, the Armored Cruiser Harbinger left docks today for trials. She features six turrets, four to the front, two to the back, that are based on the relay we took apart for technology and resources. Really the turrets are just shrunken versions of the relay though and each one at a hundred meters in size fires massive blasts of plasma at several times the speed of light.

The consequence is the draw of power which means Harbinger has SIX elerium reactors compared to a normal cruiser's two in order to sufficiently power her turrets, barriers, and engines.

Already we've laid out the plans between Shen, Vahlen, and myself for a new class of super battleships with the armor, barriers, and shields to stand up to even our own weapons. The only issue will be funding, but I don't expect that to be too difficult with the Council. Label it a necessity for the defense and they'll get it funded.

It's cheap, but it works, and I'm not above it if it means being ready when we run into the Protheans.

**April 8, 2033:** Four more systems fully colonized and a new nanomachine medicine that stops aging.

It seems humanity is entering its greatest era. I don't know what to say about that, but I'm not letting my guard down yet. Pirates are starting to become an issue so I've dispatched fleet elements to deal with them.

Fortunately with the new medicine and public opinion, it looks like I have a long career ahead of me.

Unfortunately, and against my personal recommendation, our group studying the Archieves on Mars has been downsized, however the personnel involved will be going to study other Protheans artifacts.

**September 9, 2087:** Our hundredth world. Shanxi is yet another jewel for humanity to treasure. While the initial X-COM facility is only one level deep so far and the civilians won't even begin to move in till it's done, Shanxi is still ours, still a human world.

Once things are a bit more established, we'll find out where the relay there leads and then we'll break it down for the fleet to use.

My personal ship just finished trials, the Last Order. She's top of the line and while I only got to stroll the decks once so far, her Captain is good and reliable. Hackett was his name. I know I can trust her to him when I need to, and his XO too, Anderson. They both remind me of the Colonel.

Loyal. Devoted. Trustworthy. The kind of subordinates every commander treasures and wishes to never to have to send to their deaths.

**January 21, 2091:** Damnit.

Damnit. Damnit. Damnit.

Shanxi just went dark. We're not sure what happened but they got a message off before hyperwave went down which means the entire base is gone to destroy a bottom level facility like that.

I've given the orders, Hackett is moving the Last Order out along with the entirety of the Third, Fifth, and Eleventh fleets for Shanxi.

Whatever enemy is there, we will see them die for their transgressions.

**OoOoOoOoO**

**So the first chapter is over and while it's mostly exposition, it does set the field for what's going to happen in the next chapter which is the First Battle for Shanxi.**

**Also, to address any thoughts on nanomachine medicine, I'm extrapolating that as a possible result of the Enemy Within expansion that's coming out given the technology that seems to be present.**


	2. Chapter 02

**OoOoOoOoO**

Sol System, Near Pluto.  
10:30 hours GMT

Captain Hackett was personally terrified as he sat in the command seat of the _XNV - Last Order_, the first of humanity's new super battleships.

The order had only come down two hours ago across fleet wide comms from THE Commander of X-COM that the human colony of Shanxi had gone dark after a brief distress signal, everyone was on edge. And then the mobilization orders came through for Hackett to take the Commander's personal flagship along with three full fleets to Shanxi to subdue whatever alien threat was there.

As he attempted to put on a cool exterior to his crew as they prepared for their warp jump to Shanxi, Hackett couldn't help but tremble with nervousness and anticipation. He hadn't even been born until after the Ethereals had been defeated, so this would be his first real engagement, and he couldn't help but realize it was the same for much of the fleets' crews.

Still, as he looked towards the command crew, he gave the necessary order with as solid a voice as possible after his XO Anderson gave him a slight nod of approval.

"Navigation, give the fleets the order to jump."

**OoOoO**

Orbit Over Shanxi.  
10:30 hours GMT.

Captain Adrien Victus stood upon the bridge of his destroyer, considering his double edged luck as a lieutenant brought him a list of overall casualty figures for the patrol group he was now in charge of.

Only two hours ago, though it now seemed like weeks, the Commodore had been leading their patrol group past Relay 314 when scans had picked up a ship of unknown design attempting to activate the relay. Kicking this information up the Turian chain of command given it was a potential first contact situation, the Commodore had received orders direct from the Primarch himself to prevent the activation of the relay, and failing that, to subjugate the race on the other end of the 314 Relay.

And oh spirits how did that go Adrien considered as he looked at the tactical display, watching the melted, burned, and shattered remains of the Turian cruiser _Flag Bearer _drift above the smoking hole that had been the alien's fortress on the garden world below.

**OoOoOoO**

Flashback

"All ships, assume formation and prepare for combat. We may have taken care of the ship at the relay easily enough but we don't know what's waiting for us here," the Commodore ordered over the fleet wide comms.

"Commodore, we have a garden world, three planets from the star, that's likely where the alien ship came from. Scans detect numerous small objects in orbit," the turian at sensors had reported.

"Alright, jump to just outside the planet's orbit and then approach at one half flank speed," the Commodore ordered.

There was a brilliant blue shift as the Turian patrol group accelerated into FTL before reappearing back into normal space a million kilometers distant from the garden world. As one, they reoriented and picked up speed and and accelerated towards the world, confident in their capabilities.

Confident that the primitives on the world below wouldn't be able to stand up to their might.

**OoOoO**

X-COM SHANXI, Shanxi colony

"Colonel, the unknowns just vanished from the vicinity of the relay and are now one million klicks and closing," the sensors officer reported from his post, a tinge of nervousness in his voice as he spoke.

"Alright everybody, you know the drill," Colonel Richard Tobius called out in a gravelly voice as he looked over the X-Ray's deployment, "There are civilians that need to be protected and we are humanity's sword and shield so let's get ready. Have all four fighters prep for launch and ready the Fusion Lance for firing, target that big bastard at the back of their battle group. Don't make any moves until we know they can't get out of the way. We're pinned to the ground so we'll only get one shot at this."

A veteran of the Ethereal war Tobius knew what he walking talking about, and his steadiness in the face of this new threat was exactly what his people needed.

"Comms, have the X-Rays attempted to hail us at all?" The Colonel called out.

"No sir, hyperwave has detected ship-to-ship chatter but nothing directed towards us."

Closing his eyes for a moment and then sighing, Colonel Richard Tobius uttered the words he hoped never to have to say. "Very well. Then by the communication silence these aliens have maintained, their aggressive posturing, and the disappearance of our scout and her crew beyond the relay, I am here by declaring a hostile first contact scenario. Engineering and the labs are to hear by purge all files and documents under WHITE GLOVE contingency under the chance that we are going to be invaded. All functional prototypes and samples are to be destroyed as well and all troops are to go to combat readiness level one," he declared.

Instantly the normal white lighting of the base was replaced with emergency red as klaxons began to blare and blast doors started to close.

"Colonel, unknowns have crossed the five hundred thousand mark," the sensor officer called loudly to get the Colonel's attention, looking more alive in the red lighting than he ever had before...and more frightened.

"Very well, charge the Fusion Lance and fire it as soon as it's ready. Launch out missiles as soon as the enemy is in range and as soon as our fighters are in the air," Tobius called out.

**OoOoO**

_Flag Bearer,_ Approaching Shanxi, less than 500,000 kilometers

"Commodore, massive energy build up from the center of the city!" The sensor officer called out.

"Put it on screen now!" The commodore demanded, and indeed was immediately rewarded.

What the screen showed was a dramatic zoom-in of what had previously a twenty-five meter tall skyscraper lined with teeth on the inside that had now tilted to point directly at the Turian battle group approaching the garden world as a venomous green glow built at the base of the prongs within a blue core of light.

"Evasive maneuvers! All ships break formation!" The Commodore shouted in desperation, however it was already too late.

**OoOoO**

The Turian cruiser _Flag Bearer,_ lead ship of the battle group had been targeted by a MK VIII Ground-to-Space Fusion Lance which functioned much like the fusion lances equipped to fighters in the Ethereal War, only a magnitude larger and it used Mass Effect technology to introduce a horrifying new realm of speed to the shot.

The teardrop shaped bolt of lime green plasma crossed the intervening 465,737 kilometers in barely a split second to hit the cruiser. Had the ship not been maneuvering the round would have gutted it stem to stern, but as it was, the _Flag Bearer _had been attempting to pull up and away from the shot so the bolt splashed across the belly, hardly even being noticed by the cruiser's kinetic barriers as the tremendous heat of the plasma boiled away the Turian hull plate like a thin sheet of plastic under a blowtorch.

The bolt continued melting through the hull till it passed through the CIC and then out the top while it eventually hit the reactor inside, turning the ship into a giant fireworks show as the blast sent scrap tumbling amongst its brethren.

The Fusion Lance, however, would take thirty seconds to recharge.

**OoOoO**

Adrien Victus was silent in shock. For a matter of fact, so was the entirety of his bridge crew. Closing, opening, and then closing his mouth like a fish, Adrien attempted to mentally collect himself before he began shouting orders.

"Comms get a line to all remaining ships!" He shouted, "Weapons, get a firing solution on the source of that shot and fire as soon as possible. Pass that order along to the other ships. Navigation, continue evasive maneuvers and get us as close as possible, I don't want them to have an easy time hitting us!"

Within seconds, Adrien could feel his destroyer accelerate beneath him, rocking and twisting as it shot towards the planet before a massive thud resounded through the hull as the main gun fired.

**OoOoO**

Colonel Tobius wore a vicious smile as he watched the largest of the X-Ray vessels detonate under the hit of the Fusion Lance in spectacular fireball. The rest of the group was taking evasive actions, but were still easy targets.

"Launch the Firestorms! Have all missile tubes on automatic! Brace for return-" Tobius began to bark out before being cut off by the sensor officer.

"INCOMING!"

The entire base had a scant half second to brace themselves before a quartet of rounds struck down upon the base, one after the other though their was some variance in the timing between them.

OoOoO

The kinetic barriers over X-COM Shanxi flared furiously with the repeated impacts, burning a brilliant, electric blue as the shrugged off the first round, the second, then the third and fourth before fading from view to leave nothing but a slight haze over the city as the vaporized remains of the slugs from orbit dispersed into the air, burned off by their kinetic energy being converted to heat in their sudden halt. This was the second warning the remaining citizens of Shanxi had to flee to the bunkers, to join those who had already gone and fled to the massive facilities built around the outskirts of the developing city.

**OoOoO**

"No damage on target, Captain," the sensor officer reported, a minor waver in his tone. It was only minor now, and had fallen dramatically from when the Flag bearer had been destroyed. With someone in charge, the turians were moving and obeying as they were trained to, and on the inside, despite what he was facing, Adrien couldn't help but smile at the reliability of his soldiers.

"All ships, continue to fire, we don't know how long that weapon will take to recharge and we have to destroy it before then," he ordered, filling his voice with steel as he spoke over the commander's channel.

"Sir, we have fighter sized contacts coming up from the surface," the sensor officer warned suddenly.

Instantly Adrien felt his blood run cold. If those fighters were armed with energy weapons like that ground based cannons, they could tear apart the battle group, instantly a meager little countermeasure came into his mind, an insane one, but a counter measure none-the-less. It was against everything taught in Turian Military training, but he needed to slow down those fighters if he couldn't destroy them outright before dealing with the ground based defenses.

"Deploy the fighters and interceptors to meet those fighters! As soon as they are engaged, deploy all shuttles to get into the furball! Have them just get in there and fly around to confuse the pilots, we need them delayed as much as possible!" He shouted.

There was a split second hesitation from the comms officer and confusion on the face of his tactics officer, but comprehension dawned on the latter's face before orders quickly went out and two or three fighters and and a matching set of interceptors left each ship to fly head on into the quartet of sleek, ovoid fighters streaking up from the surface.

Within moments, both groups had become entangled in a ferocious furball, already six of the turian light craft destroyed in small nebula like explosions. It was at this point that nearly two dozen shuttles, armed only with light, forward firing mass accelerators, shot from the remaining ships to join into the fray, further harassing the four fighter craft.

Adrien would have been thrilled with the success of his tactic at stopping the fighters at the mid ground, halfway between himself and the planet, but he was betting that the weapon down below was getting ready to fire again, and that left him desperately torn.

He could split the fleet apart and to make them as hard to target as possible, but leave them at the mercy of the alien fighters if they chose to break away from the furball and make a run. Or he could concentrate them together for shelter, but cut down their ability to dodge and leave them easy for that ground based gun to target.

In the end he decided to keep them relatively close together, feeling that was the wisest decision.

**OoOoO**

Beneath the surface of Shanxi

Colonel Tobius grimaced as the kinetic barriers of X-COM Shanxi continued to drain beneath the barrage of shells coming from the ships in orbit, listening to the deep, bass like beat of the impacts far above that still resonated through the air and into the planet below.

"How long on the Fusion Lance?" he queried, a touch urgently.

"Another eight seconds, sir," the weapons officer replied.

Tobius couldn't help but grimace. The firestorms were stuck in a tremendous snarl of single ships that had been released by the X-Rays and even though they were quickly cutting them down, they were too preoccupied to pull away and go after the enemy ships. Worse the vessels weren't in range yet of the ground based plasma missile batteries which would have made short work of them.

After several more seconds of intense pounding on the city's kinetic barriers, Tobius got the message he needed.

"Fusion Lance ready to fire."

OoOoO

Holding at just under four hundred and seventy thousand klicks from the planet, Adrien watched with a growing coldness in his gut as Turian fighters and interceptors were picked off one by one till all of a sudden the furball seemed to disperse slightly, leaving him momentarily puzzled before his sensor officer began to shout something, only for the _Serviceman_, his own Destroyer's sister ship to disappear in a venomous green flash to the right before being over whelmed by the blue flare of a mass effect core detonation.

Captain Adrien couldn't have been more horrified by the results as he felt the ship beneath him lurch from another shell being launched towards the planet.

**OoOoO**

Tobius's narrowed eyes flickered with pleasure as he watched the left most of the two remaining medium sized ships explode, leaving behind only what he'd guess were frigates and the the slightly larger destroyer firing them.

Still, it was a hopeless situation and he knew it. The instant the kinetic barriers fell, the base would likely be destroyed in only a few shots. For while an X-COM facility could certainly survive a nuclear detonation of several time what these alien's weapons provided, the issue came in that all of the problem came from the fact that this was several dozen kilotons focused into not even a quarter meter of area.

Their guns would cut through their armor like butter in just a few shots.

**OoOoO**

Adrien's crew gave a small cheer as one of the ovoid alien fighters detonated in a ball of nuclear fire, leaving only three of the machines to be dealt with as his ships struggled to drop the kinetic barriers over the fortress below. Unfortunately, he couldn't bring himself to join in the cheer, already knowing the price it had cost just to destroy that one fighter. Nearly half of his battle group's fighters, interceptors, and shuttles were destroyed, their pilots floating in the cold embrace of space after their craft had been hit by a miniaturized version of that weapon firing at them from the ground.

"Sensors, which ship is that gun tracking now?" Adrien called out, working to figure out his next strategy. Without any knowledge on the strength of his enemy's kinetic fields, he was almost fighting blind, and he needed whatever vessel that was going to be shot at to do its best to dodge.

Only the reply he got made his blood run cold.

"Us, sir,"

**OoOoO**

"Colonel, our barriers will collapse within the next twenty seconds," one of Tobius's officers called from their position, engineering he remembered, as panic began to show in his voice and face.

"Steady son. We are X-COM and we will do our duty, so calm down. Weapons, make sure that the Fusion Lance is ready to fire and does so. Also ensure that all missiles are in automatic mode to target all craft not bearing human IFFs. Even if they take out this base, we won't make it easy on them," Tobius said calmly.

A small red alert flashed across the main display saying 'Automatic Mode Engaged' as he gave an honest smile before speaking up as he said over the comms, "Ladies and gentlemen, it has been an honor serving with you."

A quarter of a second later, in the silence of the X-COM Shanxi base, an alert flashed indicating the kinetic barriers had failed before the Fusion Lance then fired and a second later a half a dozen slugs from the ships in orbit obliterated CIC and continued on down into the base.

**OoOoO**

Captain Victus watched in trepidation as a second alien fighter exploded along with half his remaining single craft, leaving him heaving in suspense as he looked at the real monster of the fight, the enourmous energy weapon sitting on the planet down below.

"All personnel in the shuttle bay are to here by evacuate or prepare to be vented during emergency manuevers," Adrien suddenly called over comm lines. A new idea had occurred to him on how to possibly avoid the shot from monster of a gun on the planet, even as they continued to fire at the kinetic barriers protecting it.

If he succeeded he would get a medal and maybe even a promotion. If he failed...well he'd be dead but his family would be shamed.

"Sensors, the instant, that gun fires, vent the shuttle bay and put the engines into reverse," got it?" He ordered, shunting the proper commands to the officer's console.

There was another nod, less hesitation this time than last, as the officer prepared to execute his orders.

"All hands brace for emergency manuevers," he ordered.

Three seconds later, all sorts of hell broke loose everyone seemed to shout at once.

"Their barriers are down!"  
"They've fired!"  
"Venting bay!"  
"Firing!"

Adrien nearly found himself thrown into and over the command console in front of him as his destroyer suddenly slowed dramatically, even by mass effect standards.

The lime green bolt of energy, which would have crashed into their nose, instead passed slightly beneath the ship, grazing the underside of both of the wing shaped assembles at the rear of the ship, melting and deforming them like a wax statue left out on a hot day.

Realizing they were still alive, Victus looked down at the surface of the planet below him to see a rapidly expanding mushroom cloud of duat and dirt before something else grabbed his attention.

Having noticed the destruction of their base, the two remaining fighters had given up on the furball and were making runs on a nearby frigate, leaving the fighters in their dust as they shot forward.

"Get the guardian system online!" Someone shouted.

"It is, they're not dying!"

Adrien cursed himself as the pair of fighters tore chunks out of the frigate before one of them finally exploded, followed in short order by the other one.

As the room quieted, Captain Adrien Victus, impromptu commander of the turian battle group was suddenly aware of just how warm the bridge was.

"Make ready to take on wounded, start on all possible repairs and send a message to high command requesting reinforcements. I'll be preparing a report for them as soon as possible," Adrien said quietly, "Once we've recovered the dead, pull us out to an even 500,000 kilometers distant."

With that, Adrien retired from the bridge and headed for his cabin. He was sure he had some ale stashed away somewhere to steady his nerves.

**OoOoOoOoO**

**So there's the new chapter and I hope you all enjoyed it. Explanations to some of the reviews will actually come during the next few chapters as X-COM learns what happened.**


	3. Chapter 03

**New chapter for you all and Enemy Within rocks!**

**OoOoOoOoO**

12:45 Hours  
500,000 Km out from Shanxi, Orbit

Adrien Victus slumped slightly in his chair as he looked into the view screen before him, completely exhausted as he met the gaze of Admiral Garen Trenus as best he could.

"Auxiliaries will be transported over to your vessel within the hour Commander, the repair vessels will also be arriving at that time to begin fixing the damage to your ship. You showed great initiative and thinking during the battle so you should expect something from command in the near future. In the mean time, make sure you get your ship back to fighting status in case reinforcements for this species return," the Admiral declared with a practiced calm, "We'll be starting the landings within half an hour so if you care to observe, feel free."

"Understood sir," Victus replied tiredly.

"Get some rest too Commander, Trenus out," the Admiral finished.

As the display winked off, Adrien found himself slumping even lower in his chair, grateful that there were now others there to take care of pacifying the planet below. After the damage that had been wreaked on the battle group he had been apart of, he would rather have just returned to Palaven and never set foot in this corner of space again, the weapons this people wielded were terrifying.

He was roused from his thoughts though as his XO cleared his throat beside him to get his attention. Perking up slightly, Adrien gave a sigh before heaving himself up as he said, "LT, you have the bridge, I'm heading to my quarters, see to it I am not disturbed unless it's an emergency."

"Understood sir," was the reply.

**OoOoOoO**

12:45 Hours  
Deep Space

Captain Hackett felt the customary stretching sensation that accompanied the end of a warp jump as the _Last Order_ re-entered normal space amidst the three fleets accompanying it. He was about to snap out an order for the status of the fleets when the sensors officer beat him to it.

"All ships reading green and accounted for, we'll be ready for our next jump in a minute and a half," the officer reported.

"Good," Hackett replied, "Navigation, alter the destination for the final jump to bring us in at the edge of the system, I want to see what we'll be up against before we run in there full force."

"Understood sir, orders away and acknowledged," the officer at navigation replied, typing away at his console.

There was another minute of silence before the stretching sensation returned and the vast Human armada disappeared.

**OoOoOoO**

12:50 Hours

Aboard the Turian dreadnought _Great Valor_, Admiral Garen Trenus was carefully looking over the deployment of the masses of shuttles and troop transports as he prepared to turn the majority of the military activities to his Army counterpart as they started landing soldiers on the colony below. While the kinetic rounds had done a great deal if damage in destroying the military facility that had been attacking them, the city around it had remained relatively unharmed to a surprising degree he noticed. He considered it a likely sign that these aliens built their cities to survive such damage, that or this planet was surprisingly active geologically, either way things were solid and urban combat was going to be likely.

Still with three dreadnoughts on station along with the entire support group for each ship, Trenus felt relatively confident in their chances of taking the city with decent speed.

But that wasn't his job fortunately.

**OoOoOoO**

No that job belonged to General Varkin Gergis who even now stood in the _Great Valor_'s deployment bay, over seeing the loading of the last shuttles personally before he boarded one that would take him to a destroyer that would be accompanying the assault craft down into the atmosphere.

As he reached the destroyer's CIC, the necessary message came in, telling him that everything was ready to go, and as he felt his mandibles pull into the Turian equivalent of a grin, General Gergis gave the order and the entire assault force descended _en masse_.

**OoOoOoO**

13:30 Hours  
Shanxi Colony

On the surface of Shanxi, X-COM soldiers who had already been deployed to various hard points and bunkers around the city waited with baited breath as techs restored secure communications around the colony. The few that were in bunkers with access to ground to space scanners had felt their breath hitch in their chests as the great fleet of vessels had moved into orbit above the world. From that fleet hundreds of dropships, easily recognizable by their configurations, had assembled around a trio of what had been termed destroyers and begun to descend towards them.

Silently, those in command of various groups of soldiers watched the feed as the aliens came closer and closer, praying to their choice of deity that the automated blaster launchers would do their job.

And as the alien drop ships crossed the fifty thousand kilometer mark, it seemed they would.

Across the city and the nearby countryside, dozens of camouflaged silos opened up before emitting the same hellish green glow that had been present in the fusion lance before venomous green orbs of plasma suddenly rocketed up into the air, their trajectories curving and turning to take them into the alien dropships. Adding to the surprise, before the orbs of plasma had even crossed a third of the fifty thousand kilometer distance, a second salvo had launched, soon to be followed by a third.

**OoOoOoO**

The shout of 'Incoming missiles!' was all General Gergis and indeed most of his troops had for warning before orbs of compressed plasma rocketed into the formation of descending dropships. Only detecting the fast moving spheres at the last moment, the bulky ships were only able to just start evasive maneuvers before the first salvo flew into the midst of the formation.

The spheres curved into the groups of ships with remarkable ability and speed before the computers on the ground decided the anti-ship level missiles were close enough and around enough vessels to detonate.

As the first blaster missile detonated, it had curved through a ninety degree turn to nearly hit the side of a drop ship where it exploded in a flash of lime green colored light, washing over its target ship and two other nearby dropships. The one that had been at the epicenter never stood a chance, vaporized in the first microseconds of the explosion while sensors and cameras watched as the other two literal melted away inside the fringes of the explosion, their hulls peeling away and their atmospheres spontaneously combusting from the spectacular heat of the plasma before whatever was left fell away or exploded with the ships' drives.

Gergis could only watch from his destroyer's CIC as twenty-three other explosions played out through his formation of drop ships and destroyers, watching in horror as the destroyer For Palaven which had been leading the charge took three of the missiles and exploded in blinding flash as her Element Zero drive went.

Feeling uncertainty grip him for the barest of moments at just what sort of attack this was Gergis reconciled himself to a far bloodier battle than he had ever experienced before shouting the order he knew he needed to give as a second salvo of the same weapons appeared on sensors just fifteen thousand kilometers out.

"All ships, break for the surface! Land where you can and stay on the ground!"

With that order, the formerly neat, tidy, military display of Turian power that was the invasion fleet became an unorganized riot as pilots and captains pushed their ships to the max in order to land as fast as possible and get out of the cross hairs even as a second wave of plasma orbs entered their ranks and exploded, taking out fifty-three ships.

**OoOoOoO**

13:39 Hours  
Turian dreadnought _Great Valor_ over Shanxi

Admiral Trenus could only watch in what could best be described as white knuckled terror from his command chair as he watched Gergis's invasion play out before him. Personally he had thought such a large force was a waste, but as he watched a full quarter of the landing force be destroyed by the time the colony's third salvo of attacks had arrived he couldn't help but be grateful to whatever commander back at Palaven it had been that had ordered such a massive force.

"Figure out where those damn things are coming from and provide some support to our troops damn it!" He shouted angrily as he watched the feed continue.

"We're trying! Where ever these things launch from they don't leave a heat signature and they're moving so much we can't find the source!" One of the bridge crew shouted.

The drop ships were closing on the surface and spreading out as the fourth salvo impacted, leading to slightly less grim results than before.

Only twenty-nine ships went down this time.

**OoOoOoO**

14:21 Hours  
Shanxi

General Gergis coughed slightly as he pulled himself from a crash seat in his destroyer which had remarkably made it all the way to the surface without getting targeted till the sixth salvo which had removed the right wing of the vessel.

Fortunately, a combination of good luck, pilot skill, and low altitude had let them land relatively softly. Relit overly being the operative word. His ship would never fly again, but as he looked about, he guessed it could still function as a command center for the ground troops.

"Alright everybody," he called out roughly, "let's get things going, we have work to do."

**OoOoOoOoO**

Alright there's the new chapter and I'll apologize right now for it being short. I'm holding off on the ground combat because I'm still playing through X-COM Enemy Within and haven't seen all the new toys that are there to play with so that will be in the next chapter which will come after I finish the game and have thoroughly explored all the technology.

Now to address some comments.

**TSCSupremeCommander**, How did humanity spread so fast?

**A**: The way humanity spread so fast is by switching over from wet navy production to space navy production. There are at least thirty facilities on the planet right now capable of building at least one, if not more, 500 foot long or larger ships at a time. If you standardize the design so parts can be sent anywhere in the world, these facilities, which are designed to build massive vehicles already, could begin pumping out space capable cruise ship sized vessels at a rate of perhaps 1 every year and a half. And with a service life of sixty years a piece if not more, that's a massive fleet to use to spread across the stars, especially in the middle if a post war baby boom, and with people wanting to potentially escape another attack and defend their home.

**OoO**

**KhazintheDark**, have they already figured out redirecting rather than stopping attacks?

**A**: Yeah, we've actually had that down since the soviets invented sloping armor on the T-34 in WWII. But yes, it will certainly be noted as something humanity already has.

**OoO**

**Trife**, Just don't make humanity bow to the council, ok?

**A**: Humanity is superior lol.

**OoO**

**CelticReaper**, Just don't let the aliens get their hands on human tech!

**A**: all human tech self detonates when the user dies like original X-ray tech, and besides that, the Council races wouldn't know what to do with human tech even if they did get their hands on it.

**OoO**

**Lizonjoe25**, happy with how professional you've portrayed the Turians. And I wanna see the Asari try and stop this.

**A**: Thank you, they aren't stupid after all, head strong and prideful maybe, but a good beating can cure those. And by the Asari try and stop this, imagine Iran's nuclear talks by way of North Korea.

**OoO**

**Hornet07**, Shanxi only has four fighters and one fusion lance?!

A: Shanxi is a new colony and sadly in a bit of backwards thinking, they were expecting an attack more like the kind at earth where the enemy came in low and as an easy target. The Commander can't manage everything.

**OoO**

**Fallout5368**, don't forget the other tech.

**A**: being addressed this chapter and next.

**OoOoOoOoO**

**End of Replies, please review, favorite, and follow!**


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